Women in the South West are less likely than men to get a job, figures show

Women in the South West are less likely than men to get a job, figures show

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Women in the South West are less likely than men to be in employment - and the gap is bigger than in the UK as a whole.

Despite Britain's jobs market recovering in recent years and latest statistics showing a rise in the employment rate, which now stands at 74.6 per cent, while unemployment is at a 42-year low, the inequality between genders in the job market remains steady.

The rate of employment for women in the region was 56.2 per cent between December 2016 and February 2017, 16.2 per cent lower than that of men, 67.1 per cent, latest figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal.

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A mother-of-two from St Paul's, Cheltenham, said: "An issue for me when I was last job hunting was the reluctance of potential employers to consider job sharing - a significant change from a decade previously.

"This would have opened up a far wider range of jobs to me than are usually available on a part-time basis - and with better pay rates and career development prospects. My current job would not be economically worth my while if I still had to pay for child care.

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One member of feminist campaign group Chelt Fems said the gender difference may be partly attributed to the difference in industries in Gloucestershire.

She said: "I think in the SW there's a large lean towards defence and related sectors, but less of other industries (I know there are some exceptions), but if you want to join the finance, construction, creative industry in a "career" rather than job, it's not really a hub down here."

Between August and October 2015, women in the South West of England saw their highest employment rate at 56.7 per cent. The lowest percentage was between March and May 1992, with an employment rate at 48.4 per cent.

Gap Between genders:

The biggest gap between genders was between April and June 1992, when the employment rate for women was 48.5 per cent against 66.2 per cent for men. Women were a quarter less likely than men to be employed.

During the three months to February, the total number of employed women was 1.3m, while for men it was 1.5m.

Across the UK, women were less likely to be employed than men, 55.4 per cent against 65.8 per cent for men, a gap of 16 per cent.

Women in London saw the biggest gender gap in the labour market with an employment rate of 58 per cent for women and 71.9 per cent for men, a fifth less.

By contrast, Wales saw the smallest gap in the labour market with an employment rate of 61.2 per cent for women against 57.3 per cent for men, or a gap of less than 7 per cent.